"This fourth CD is based, like its predecessors, on a variety of rhythms seldom heard elsewhere... Extreme manipulation, percussive overdubs and Burnt Friedman's sequence-like guitar and synthesizer (Korg MS20, in this case) provide accompaniment for music to which the notion of domination is foreign. The six hypnotic instrumentals are driven by Liebezeit's cyclic drumming. In Secret Rhythms 4, the interplay of reduction and maximization is elevated to an aesthetic principle, the sound distributed dynamically over background and foreground. Fusing electronic and acoustic, improvisation and postproduction, Friedman & Liebezeit move further away from Anglo-American models. And although the duo's preference for repetition is evidence of a refusal to flaunt virtuosity, the revived notion of Krautrock seems wholly inappropriate for Friedman & Liebezeit. Be it in concert or in the studio, the swing emerges naturally from the rhythmic pattern. That Mark Ernestus was invited to mix and co-produce the second track on the album is no coincidence: he played an important part in producing club tracks (e.g. Rhythm & Sound) unsurpassed in their bold minimalism and refined quality of sound." (label info)